Louisiana Senate kills bill that would have banned gender-affirming care for trans minors

A Louisiana Senate committee on Wednesday killed a bill that would have banned gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, dealing a rare victory to LGBTQ people in the largely GOP-controlled South.

Louisiana’s House Bill 648 failed Wednesday during a final vote in the state Senate Health and Welfare Committee, where Republicans have a one-seat majority. State Sen. Fred Mills, a Republican from south-central Louisiana, voted with all Democrats to defer the bill.

Mills, a pharmacist, said during Wednesday’s vote that he trusts physicians more than legislators to make medical decisions that are in the best interest of patients.

“I always in my heart of hearts have believed that a decision should be made by a patient and a physician,” Mills said.

Gender-affirming health care for transgender youths and adults is supported by most major medical organizations, including the Americans Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Mills also said that a Louisiana Health Department study on gender-affirming health care last year helped influence his decision to vote against the bill.

The report found that no gender-affirming surgical procedures were performed on Medicaid-enrolled minors in the state between 2017 and 2021. The prescription of medications including puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy to treat gender dysphoria in minors during the same time period was also exceedingly rare, the report found.

House Bill 648 would have barred health care professionals in Louisiana from administering gender-affirming medical care to patients younger than 18 under the threat of having their professional licenses revoked. The measure was put forward by state Republican Rep. Gabe Firment, who introduced similar legislation last session.

Firment this year has argued in legislative hearings and on social media that gender-affirming medical care for minors is “experimental” and should be regulated through legislative action.

In the leadup to Wednesday’s vote, staff for Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards helped mobilize votes against the bill, The Advocate reported. Edwards during a press conference this month condemned recent anti-LGBTQ legislation in the state legislature, citing disproportionately high rates of suicide among transgender young people.

“These kinds of bills do not tend to help with that,” he said.

Edwards’s track record on supporting LGBTQ-friendly policies is less than perfect — his decision last year to neither sign nor veto a bill prohibiting transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams through college drew fierce blowback from the LGBTQ community.

With the defeat of House Bill 648, Louisiana is set to become something of a haven for gender-affirming health care in the deep south, where transition-related care for transgender youths and some adults is already banned in a majority of states.

In neighboring Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) appears poised to sign legislation banning gender-affirming health care for minors.

In all, 19 states have enacted a law or policy restricting access to gender-affirming health care, including 16 that have done so this year.